Posted on 10/09/2005 7:28:41 PM PDT by Dan from Michigan
An oversupply in housing that has been troubling other southeast Michigan communities has hit Washtenaw County in full force.
The result has been stagnant home values for the past two years. There's also evidence that values may be depreciating slightly as competition forces down prices.
Experts say the poor Michigan economy, coupled with a flood of new houses, has created the strong buyer's market.
"The inventory is greater than Ann Arbor really has ever seen,'' said Elizabeth Brien, a leading agent with the Charles Reinhart Co., a real estate firm dealing with properties throughout Washtenaw County. "And I think it's going to continue to grow for awhile.''
According to the Ann Arbor Area Board of Realtors, listings for single-family houses are up 21 percent through August 2005 compared to 2004, while the number of units sold has fallen slightly.
It's a bitter pill for home sellers who daily see stories about the super-heated home appreciation in other markets around the country. The national average for appreciation was 14 percent in 2004. Washtenaw County last year averaged just 1.5 percent appreciation, and is on pace for virtually no gain this year.
Through August 2005 the median sale price of a home in Washtenaw County was $227,500, compared to $230,000 that time last year.
Sellers face hard choices
A tough real estate market could damage other sectors of the local economy, as many people have been counting on gaining wealth through home appreciation. With access to equity so easy through lines of credit and refinancing, rising values have been counted on to pay for consumer spending.
Martin Bouma, a Keller Williams agent who has 68 residential listings, said about 15 of his clients are "very anxious.''
(Excerpt) Read more at mlive.com ...
True.
But how much of the real estate bust is fueled by the speculators that bought homes looking to make a quick and unearned return on their dubious investment?
Sounds like this side of the state, too.
Way overbuilt.
I just hope it stays a buyer's market for one more year......
> Through August 2005 the median sale price of a home in Washtenaw County was $227,500, compared to $230,000 that time last year.
That is not a "bust". That is a slowdown.
The house next to me Was sold by the original owners for $149,000 about 6 years ago. It's been sold twice more in the first 3 years and has only been occupied for a few months in the last 3. Today the asking price is $225,000 and the owners expects to lose money on it.
From talking to people who have looked at it, it seems the house is too far from Ann Arbor, and about $60,000 too much.
Big Mama winter is coming fast. I'd move too.
Personally, I'd like to build a wall about 2 miles south of M-36 along the Washtenaw County line.......:)
Obviously you didnt hear the radio guy on WJIM. He declared Granholms "Cool Shitties" initiative a success. He said it created 400 new jobs. The Cool Shitties budget was only 100 mill. Thus each job only cost the taxpayers $250,000.00. Granholms a genius....and the radio guy is ...a... Tool!!!
Sounds like just the place to send a few thousand former N.O. residents!
From your description they would feel right at home, except for the weather.
There are certainly enough of them to use up the "excess" houses on the market.
And in Santa Monica this afternoon I saw two condo open houses with "reduced" signs on them.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Location, location, location....
"...coupled with a flood of new houses.."
This has killed selling an older home in DFW - so many new and updated houses on the market, areas are seeing pricing drops of $10-15K (Richardson, Plano and Grand Prairie)
With all due respect I don't see why anybody would want to move to MI. The state's economy is in shambles, devastated from the loss of factory jobs and the decline of the American carmakers. Young poverty-stricken males roam the countryside, stealing everything in sight and selling drugs wherever you go (and not just in the Motor City - along the lake shore, Benton Harbor, Grand Rapids, etc.). It's the most depressing place I've ever seen in the First World.
What surprises me the most is that property values have not collapsed in Ann Arbor. (Yet.)
Yeah I would like to do the same along the eastern and northern edges of Jackson county.
more of it (at least around here (not ann arbor)) is fueled by builders selling 100% financed new homes and/or builder-bought-down mortgages (where the monthly payment goes up 50% after 2 or 3 years). the market is swamped with middle-class/upper-middle-class homes that are 2-4 years old where the buyers just can't afford them anymore -- on top of all the new builds.
it's crazy.
The Delphi BK should help things out.
These "uneducated boobs" had no right to earn such high wages with which to purchase such properties in these "neighborhoods" anyway.
All "works out in the end", eh?
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